Iono-Sama Fanatics

Writer and Artist: Miyabi Fujieda

Publisher: Independent

What's it about?

This is a Yuri title.  Yuri means girls love and is the name given to manga about female couples.  Yuri can be explicitly about sex, or can be more about the relationship side of things.  Some of it can be a coming out narrative, some of it can just be two women getting it on.  The male equivalent is called Yaoi.

Iono is the princess of an unspecified small nation.  She travels to Japan to find black haired women willing to become her sobames – companions (she’s very specific about the black hair).  ‘Sama’ is an honorific given to someone of a higher status than you and ‘fanatics’ refers to the sobames Iono has engaged in her service, all of whom, naturally, call their boss Iono-Sama.

The book opens with Iono on the streets of Japan hitting on random women requesting that they be her sobame.  Her method of picking up women is to stand in the middle of the street and yell ‘who wants to apply to be my sobame?’.  She's not wonderfully successful at this.  Eventually she finds a woman named Eto Hachibe.  Iono falls for Eto and when she invites her into her household she won't take no for an answer.  The rest of the book follows Eto's new life in the royal household as she tries to find a job for herself whilst managing Iono's insatiable desire for more sobames.

It's a comedy, it's a romance and it's all about women!

Superman/Shazam: First Thunder

Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Joshua Middleton
Letterer: Nick J Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics

What's it about?
First Thunder tells of one the first meetings between Superman and Captain Marvel.  I will assume that you all have an idea who Superman is and skip straight to explaining Captain Marvel.

12 year old Billy Batson has been given the powers of the Gods of magic.  By uttering the word Shazam he becomes Captain Marvel - the World's Mightiest Mortal!  He is blessed with the Wisdom of Solomon, strength of Hercules, stamina of Atlas, power of Zeus, courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.

Mythology fans might spot a disparity here - Achilles isn't a God and there is a mix up between the Greek and Roman names for the Gods.  I can only imagine that the people creating the character weren't too concerned with the facts.  Nevermind, just think of it as a separate pantheon.

Throughout America ancient mystical artifacts are being stolen from museums.  This spate of thefts brings both Superman and Captain Marvel to Fawcett City to investigate further, whereupon they discover an ancient sect wanting to unleash a demon on the world.  Meanwhile, Dr Sivana, Captain Marvel's nemesis, sets out to destroy the Captain once and for all.  These two plots weave together to form a memorable climax that is unexpectedly affecting.

This book is probably more for the young adult/older child age range.  It can be read an enjoyed as an adult - certainly, I think it's great - but I can imagine many non comic reading adults not being too impressed.

Wednesday Comics

Credits:
BATMAN: Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
ADAM STRANGE: Paul Pope, Neil Gaiman andMichael Allred
THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN: Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze
DEADMAN: Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck
KAMANDI: Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook
SUPERMAN: John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo
WONDER WOMAN: Ben Caldwell
GREEN LANTERN: Kurt Busiek and Joe Quiñones
TEEN TITANS: Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway
SUPERGIRL: Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner
HAWKMAN: Kyle Baker
SGT. ROCK: Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert
THE FLASH: Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher
METAL MEN: Dan DiDio and Ian Churchill
Publisher: DC Comics

What's it about?
14 different short superhero stories, each one told over 14 pages and collected in an oversized, hardback book of 200 pages. All stories are out of continuity, fresh one off narratives that require absolutely no previous knowledge of the character or the DC Universe. It's sort of a love letter to comics through the decades, with the creators kicking back, having fun and developing something that can stand alone in an attempt to show the true essence of each character.

Calvin & Hobbes

Writer and Artist: Bill Watterson
Publisher:  Sphere

What’s it about?

Mostly, it’s about six year old Calvin and his overactive imagination.  His best friend is a stuffed Tiger named Hobbes, with whom he invents numerous characters and stories, ranging from Spaceman Spiff, Captain Stupendous, tyrannosaurs (usually based on his mother), alien invasions (usually based on both parents), and far far more.

The perils of Calvin’s life can be summarised thus:

School, bathtime, Rosalyn the babysitter, school photos, camping trips, his long suffering neighbour neighbour Susie and his very attentive parents.

Animal Man: Animal Man, Origin of the Species, Deus Ex Machina

Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Chas Truog (vol 1, 2, 3), Tom Grummett (vol 1, 2), Paris Cullens (vol 3)
Inker: Doug Hazelwood (vol 1, 2, 3), Mark McKenna (vol 2 ), Steve Montano (vol 2, 3), Mark Farmer (vol 3),
Letterer: John Constanza (vol 1, 2, 3), Janice Chiang (vol 2)
Colourist: Tatjana Wood, (vol 1, 2, 3), Helen Vesik (vol 2)
Covers: Brian Bolland
Publisher: DC Comics

What’s it about?

These 3 trades collect 26 monthly issuers of the 1980s Animal Man comic, written by Grant Morrison.  It concerns Buddy Baker, a man who gradually becomes aware of his existence as a fictional character within a comic book.

Morrison tends to write grand, complex meta-narratives and this book, produced early in his career, is no exception.  The interest in these volumes lies in seeing how Buddy comes to realise his fictionality, understanding the effect this has on him looking at our roles as consumers of his story.

(Click each picture to get a bigger version)

We are one year old!

Yes, we have made it to one year!  I'm pretty proud of what we've done here, so why don't we take a look at what we've done in the past year, by looking at some numbers.  We've had 4 amazing reviewers producing 100 reviews covering the following things:

40 superhero books
31 non superhero books
9 manga
11 webcomics
3 themed months - Halloween, LGBT history month and Valentines day

13 posts discussing comics, the point of them and what new readers need to know (including 2 giving specific consumer advice)
Developed a list of 71 recommended comics shops, both online and in the real world, situated all over the world.

7 All Ages books
10 teenage books
14 books for mature readers
6 posts on comic related events around the world

We've showcased a huge variety of art and writing styles and I think we've also demonstrated the diversity that exists in modern comics - we've had 19 books with LGBT characters, 25 with Characters of Colour, 4 with disabled characters (I think we need to improve that figure).  We've covered a lot of genres: comedy, crime, action, romance, animals, war, biography, mafia, fantasy and so on.

If there are particular styles or genres of book you'd like to see please let us know!  Either email us or leave a comment on any of the posts.  We like feedback!

A few thanks are needed here.  Firstly, a huge huge thank you to my fellow reviewers - James Ashelford, Lissbirds and Mothee.  They are all bloody great and inspiring writers who put my words to shame.  I would not have been able to keep this going without their help and contributions.  They are all great and you should go read their personal blogs now.

A quick note about how we operate:
None of us are paid for this.  We don't work for or have any connections with the comics industry. We have been sent solicits of new comcis, but we only review them if we think they are any good and appropriate for this site.  Basically, we do this out of a love for comcis and a desire to write.

Another round of thanks to everyone who has linked to the site, commented on it, gave ideas for books, suggested what was important for new readers, recommended a good comic shop or otherwise given input.

We're not going away, we've got lots more books planned to cover and we hope you stick around and keep on reading. :)

About Formats. The Telephone Book Collection

Christmas is coming up and you may be looking for presents for the comic fans of your acquaintance or maybe you might want to take this opportunity to try some comics. If so, that’s what this blog is for: comic recommendations for the new reader. Of course, graphic novels are quite an expensive medium, probably more than most of us will want to spend on anything less than the closest of relatives. So today we at New readers…start here turn the spotlight on a format that emphasises quantity and economy: the telephone book collection.